THE article on the new household service charge (July 27) included a promise from Environment Minister Phil Hogan that homes will only pay water charges above a free allocation.

"Read my lips," he declared.

However, the accompanying picture showed the minister with his lips concealed.

Is he keeping his court cards up his sleeve? He acknowledges that the charge is obligatory because Ireland ceded economic sovereignty to the EU/IMF. This makes his party leader's much-lauded speech trumpeting our being a sovereign state seem all the more like empty rhetoric in an equally empty Dail chamber.